3 Breakfast Smoothies

As part of our resolve to be a healthier family, I introduced Brice to a green smoothie. He told me at first he didn't like them but he was willing to try again. Now every morning we look forward to drinking our smoothies together. We both feel so much better!!

Our morning these days consist of one of three shakes from Sweet Luvin In The Kitchen. I do not have a nice blender so we have not ventured in trying to blend whole fruits and veggies yet. Just simple. 

• Strawberry Green Smoothie (I use 1/2 cup orange juice instead of an orange. I also add some blueberries (or have tried some frozen pineapple too)with the frozen strawberry measurement and flax seed powder...not sure what its called..thats what I call it) Got it at Winco
• Berry Oatmeal Smoothie (Made it without honey because we didnt have any and I didnt think it was too bad. Not as sweet for sure...but not bad)
• PB and Oatmeal Smoothie (Have tried with part regular milk/part water and vanilla and its not too bad that way if you dont have almond milk)

The first one is the best for you. Just think...in one meal you get at least 3 servings of fruit, 1-2 serving of Veggies, dairy from the yogurt, and fiber and protein from the Flaxseed. What a great way to start the day!

Whipped Sweet Potatoes

I just made these whipped sweet potatoes from Sweet Luvin In The Kitchen, and holy cow..so good!!! Brice went back for seconds. They are not healthy...it has butter and refined sugar and it is kind of more like a treat than a side... but so worth it. After boiling the sweet potatoes I set a little bowl full of some for Cade to eat for dinner...and breakfast...and whenever else he will eat them. He didn't really go for it for dinner but I tried again for breakfast and a few actually got into his mouth. Im going to try again today and see what he does. 

But seriously make these...you wont regret it. Not too much prep...longest was pealing and cutting but cooking and putting together was quicker than I expected (Having a kitchen aid really helps with that). We both added pecans on top at the end and it was a nice touch. 

Served with this salad(here)and left over rolls I had in the freezer.

Chicken Salad

I had left over chicken and wanted to make a salad for dinner. I didn't have any black olives so I had to do without and I forgot the red onions. It was still good but I would say they probably would have made it that much better. It was simple and light. If you are looking for a versatile, light and delicious dressing, I would definitely try this one. 

Chicken Salad
6-8 leaves of Romaine lettuce
1 cucumber, pealed and quartered (my husband doesn't like the peal)
1 large tomato cut in small pieces
Pieces of cold chicken recipe here 
Feta Cheese

Adapted from: Sweet Luvin In The Kitchen

Dressing from Sweet Luvin In The Kitchen (This is such an awesome website. She is a lady in my ward and is an amazing cook! She has taught a few classes for RS activities)

4 Tbsp. olive oil
4 Tbsp. red wine vinegar 
1 garlic clove, minced (only had the pre cut jar kind and it was still good)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
dab of dijon mustard

Feeding my Family

A few months back I found this website all about eating a plant based diet and cutting out completely anything processed.  It had some great ideas and I loved the idea(http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/) I was on a serious kick for about 2-3 weeks. I avoided refined sugars, made my own homemade bread, tortillas and made our meals from scratch. We even bought a quarter of a 'happy cow' that was free range grass fed.

But then I just started getting worn down. It was hard to always make things homemade, I didn't enjoy spending too much time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning, and I didn't like having to be super prepared all the time. The food sometimes was good and sometimes it was disappointing as I tried different vegetarian meals. In some ways it helped me keep to my weekly budget..cutting out some boxed food and making things myself made it cheaper too...but it was hard when it came to the end of the week and I started to run out of produce. 

Brice talked to me about eating healthier lunches again. Because he sits so much for work and school he was just feeling so gross and wanted to start eating little healthy snacks through out the day and a light lunch. Im so glad he said something because it has me back on the healthy wagon and motivated me to start finding new salads and homemade dressings. 

Im amazed at people who can make things up when they cook! I am learning more and more each day, what I like and what works for me. No processed food at ALL does not work for me. Eating junk does not work for me either. I want to feed my family healthy meals but tasty and satisfying food too. Making meals for my family needs to be efficient and worth my time to make it...especially if it takes a little more prep.  

Learning how to realistically feed my family in a way that makes us happy and feel good is another part in creating our home. Struggling with getting Cade to eat solid foods has reminded me that I want him to start off right and eat and love healthy food, but it has to start with me. 

Family blog

I changed the blog title to: "The Timothy Family...Creating our life"

...Creating our life. 

I love the possibility and excitement that comes when you know your life is in your hands to create.  

'Creating our life' means to me...

• Making our house a home
• Creating and perserving memories
• Building traditions that my family can look forward to
• Creating our happiness
• Creating our family identify and purpose
• Deciding what kind of parent and family member I want to be
• Leaving a legacy

My blog is my journey of how I am creating my home and family life. I want it to be the place where I can share and preserve memories, record traditions, and share a little about what I am learning along the way.  

*What are you doing today to CrEaTe your life??

Chipmunk baby

It wasnt until this happened...

and this...

Oh and this....

..until I really started to realize there was a real problem on my hands. I had a coupon to Babies R Us and found these beautiful things ha. I was feeling good again about the situation. That chipmunk cant eat my crib anymore! 

It was nap time and I could hear him whining and crying and making a bunch of racket. I went in to check on him and this was what I saw....oh dear. :) Baby 1. Mommy 0.

FunFriday17 Papa and Pizza

Daddy was home early!! What a happy surprise! And it was a semi warm day...(It feels warm when its over 32 degrees these days)...what a great day! We went on a walk to our favorite pizza place and splurged. It is the simple things of life...family and good food. 

Cade's adorable giggle. Love this boy!!

                                        

Cousin Clara turns 1

We went to our adorable little niece's birthday party up in Ogden last Sunday. She has the biggest dark brown eyes and beautiful brown hair. She is a doll and so sweet. It was funny to see the difference between her and Cade. She is definitely a girl...and well Cade is definitely a boy boy. 

Clara Lynn

She would crawl a little but sit and play peacefully. Cade meanwhile was doing laps around their house and through their kitchen and wanted to explore everywhere. If only I counted how many times I had to get up and get him or stop him. He keeps me busy. I wonder what it will be like when he have our own girl, if I will be able to tell a big difference between my boy and my girl babies. For now a boy is all I know. 

They had a few other kids there and right before Clara opened her presents they passed out little gift bags to all the kids. That way no kids were sad because they were missing out on gifts. Genius. I thought that was such a great idea. Ill have to remember it for later.

Aunt Kelly and Cade playing. He has a sweet and loving aunt.

Cute Cousins

Cade loved the dog and thought she was the best toy he had ever seen.  He just didnt appreciate the dog kisses so much. 

Heres a little video of cute Clara playing and Cade getting a big old wet one from Scout :) 

FunFriday 16 Dinner out for the Parents

Uncle Ben and Aunt Sarah were so nice to offer to watch Cade for us while we used the Outback giftcard we got from Brice's Birthday to celebrate his first week at Magleby...It was so fun to get out together and just enjoy each other. Its sooo good for your soul and your love :)My brothers Brian and Mark were there working and Brian got to serve us so that was fun. 

Brice posing

And me. It felt so good getting 'dressed up.'

:)  love this guy

During our date, I text Ben to see how things were going. He told us Cade hadn't moved an inch, was just sitting on his lap watching a movie.  We were cracking up! Stay still? Not Cade! ahah So glad he was a good boy.

Its Bananas Around Here

I was so proud of myself for getting this done early, doing something hard, it working out and actually looking better than I thought it would! So awesome when that happens. 

So Cade is turning one at the end of April. I have been overly prepared for it. Mostly because Im excited and I think I can maybe pull it off where I am not worrying about anything last minute. 

This is what I did tonight while my husband watched Cade crawl around the house and try to get into everything he tried to do, instead of me. It was very nice. I cant believe I got so much done.

Pin the tail on the monkey...get ready to have some fun folks with this classic game:)hehe I have a feeling Cade may be more interested in eating the tail than sticking it on something.  

Started with making a grid on the small picture I printed off of google images. I figured half an inch square box seemed about right.

Then I measured across my poster board and got 22 inches across. On my small picture paper it made 10 squares so to make 10 squares across a 22 inch paper I would have to make 2 inch squares (with one extra row of squares I cut off). I can do math. It was 9 squares down on the small paper, 2 inch squares on the large, so only 18 inches down. I cut off the extra. 

I just followed my little picture and just focused on the shape in that box in relation to the boxes around it. 

And kept going...

..until it looked right and all parts were there. Then outlined with markers and filled in with crayons. I added a touch of greenery on my own to the left. 

All done!! What a cute little baby monkey! :)

Now this was the worst part and if I had to do it again I would just use brown construction paper. But I had extra poster paper so I decided to use that. I used a plain piece of paper to trace the tail from my poster board. Then traced that has many times as I could on the poster board. It was very tedious. 

Here are all the tails. Still working on coloring. I put a different color dot on each end so when we play we will know whose is whose (in case its close). Im thinking the winner will get a little bag of banana Laffy Taffys from Winco. 

Love Day

I love Valentines. The colors, the flowers, the extra love in the air...

Its especially nice when you have someone.. 

or someones to share it with. 

Decorating is sure fun too as a mom.  My facebook feed had a bunch of pictures of fabulous moms doing fabulous things.  Ideas for next year to achieve perfection, of course.

As for this year, I used the Valentine pouches I made (scroll down to previous post) to keep the small things I got them. I love the tradition of writing a sweet card and a few little gifts. 

Brice brought home this beautiful bouquet of red roses. I put my nose up to smell them (like any normal girl does when she receives flowers) and it smelled more like dust than um flower...Brice did the same and to his surprise they werent what he thought they were when he bought them. 

Dont worry! They were only a symbol of our love...

Fake..

Wait, wait, not that!! 

Forever!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines!! XO

PS Heres a little video! Enjoy!

Valentines Craft and Tradition

I wish I was more crafty but I really dont enjoy trying new things very much that may not turn out.  I felt fairly confident that I could do this one. This is my first real project Ive done on my own in a while. I saw a similar idea in a magazine once and decided to try it. 

Started by measuring and cutting covering for chair

Measure, cut, and added pocket and trimming

Pinned and sewed the sides and pocket closed 

Valentine mailbox pouches

Here they all are

I thought of a fun way to use the Valentine mailboxes.  I cut out 28 hearts each for Cade and Brice. Im writing one thing I love about them for each day of February and put it in their mailbox to read in the morning. Then I thought about gluing them on a paper to make a placemat to use for the next year. Right now the papers are just on the fridge. We will see how it turns out. 

New Job

Im so proud of Brice for getting his Internship at Magleby Construction. He will be an estimator there helping with the commercial side of the business.  He has worked so hard in work and school.  Every step of the way with his jobs and schooling, he has learned what he's needed to, to help him get where he needs to be. It has been a testimony to me that with God's help (and some grit and determination and optimism) all things work together for our good. He has been going to school straight for almost 3 yrs and has done two semesters of 18.5 credits while working full time. He is going to walk in April, getting his degree in 3.5 yrs. He is amazing. 

I have to just tell a little story about Brice...One night I was needing to do something for myself but felt like I shouldnt because I needed to clean the bathrooms still and do some things around the house. Brice, being the great husband he is, knew I needed to get out of the house by myself. So he kicked me out to go shopping at the mall. When I got home already feeling better, I walked into a quiet and clean house. The dinner was all cleaned up, both bathrooms were cleaned, a candle was burning, chocolate chip cookies were baking, my baby was bathed and sleeping,and there was a sign that said all the things I was going to do tonight...take a long bath, watch a chick flick, and get a massage. I told Brice to stop making me look bad! ha :) I never get that much done in one day! I have the best husband. Love you Brice.